Do most places do navel numbing when piercing?

Actually No. Numbing causes a couple of problems for navel piercing, topical (applied to the surface and allowed to soak in) distorts the tissue and generally messes up the piercing placement due to the bloating of the tissue. Injection anesthetic can only be used and administered by licensed medical professionals and in order to use it it has to be injected (using a needle into the skin in several locations), so what's the point? Once the anesthetic wares off the pain is due to the invasive injection of anesthetic and not the actual navel piercing. So actually the navel piercing is easy and relatively painless, if you listen to the piercer and breathe as instructed it is done and over with in no time. Most professional (old school) piercers wouldn't pierce anyone who wanted numbing, it's beleived that if you want the piercing bad enough a momentary pinch isn't that bad. I found for the time wasted worrying about the pain and discomfort, the piercing could have been done and over with. Most of my clients actually said it was a mild pinch and then it was fine.